Social Justice Math

Tasks in Action
Diann Herington, Elizabeth Johnson, Derek Paulsen
Our Students
Diann’s Classes:

A large number of
students are of low-
socioeconomic status.

48% of my students are

male and 52% are female.

20% of my students have

IEPs.
Our Students
Elizabeth’s Classes:

In my Algebra 1B classes, I
have a large number of
students who are of low
socioeconomic status. My
classes are also very racially
diverse.

59% of my students are male

and 41% of my students are
female.
 Demographic Codes:
● White

Our Students
● African American
● African American/ Biracial
● Other
○ Multi-Racial
○ Alaskan Native
Derek’s Classes: ○
○
Hispanic
American Indian
○ Asian Pacific Islander

My two Statistics classes

are fairly racial diverse and
low to middle
socioeconomic status.
Most of students are
seniors.

Period 1 class: 40% male,

60% female
 Demographic Codes:
● White

Our Students
● African American
● African American/ Biracial
● Other
○ Multi-Racial
○ Alaskan Native
Derek’s Class: ○
○
Hispanic
American Indian
○ Asian Pacific Islander
Period 7 class: 33% male,
67% female
What the Research Says
about Our Students
● “Latino, African American, and low-income students are not as likely to have the same
opportunities to learn in our schools as other groups.” (Flores, p. 30)

● “...minority children frequently experience discontinuity between home and school in

ways of using language. They are often misunderstood when applying prior knowledge
to classroom tasks. Of what use is prior experience to these children if their established
ways of using language and making sense of the world are deemed unacceptable or
prohibited in the classroom? This discontinuity has often been identified as a source of
academic problems for minority children.” (Villegas, p. 254)

● Women, families living in poverty, and people of color have struggled to receive equal
educational opportunities, which is perpetuated by our current system of education
(Appelbaum)
What the Research Says
about Our Students
● In general, students of racial minority and low socioeconomic status experience fewer
opportunities to learn and succeed. Whether it be a lack of access to resources, lower
expectations of ability, or inequitable societal experiences, these students face hurdles
that other students do not.
● Through strong student-teacher relationships and an awareness of these inequities,
teachers have the ability to guide students over those hurdles in the pursuit of learning.
● By implementing a social justice task, teachers are able to learn more about their
students while taking an active role in understanding and impacting inequities in our
society.
Task 1: Fair Wages
In this task, Algebra 1 students are asked to analyze 6
different families from Des Moines to determine whether or
not they can afford the housing that they need. Families in
this task represent a diverse cross-section of society today
with a wide variety of races, ages, sexual orientations, and
socioeconomic statuses.

Students must use their understanding of linear equations

and relationships to graph the families’ wages and compare
them to apartment rental costs.

The final product of this lesson, which wraps up all of the

ideas into a cohesive conclusion, is a paragraph explaining
whether or not each student thinks that the housing market in
Des Moines is fair or not. They are asked to use information
from the task to support their claims.
Diann’s Implementation Experience
● The class was divided into groups of six students, one
student for each family from the task.
● Students were given 40 minutes to work on the task.
Due to a tight course schedule, I couldn’t give students
the entire block to work on the task.
○ Because of this, I only used question 4 and didn’t require
students to graph.
● One student refused to work with his group and
started verbal altercations with his peers and myself,
which resulted in security escorting him out of the
room.
Diann’s Implementation Experience
Challenges
● Students had trouble
calculating the
weekly/monthly income,
which I hadn’t anticipated.
● Once the disruption
happened, students had a
hard time regaining focus,
which meant the main
objectives of the task were
lost. We didn’t get to have a
lot of discussion.
Successes Ideas for the Future
● Students that normally ● Instead of the cards saying,
“check out” and put their “You are…” I would like to
heads down were actually edit the task so the
participating and asking students are studying
questions. different families. Students
● There were a couple were upset if I gave a male
students that made student a card that said
comments about making “you are a woman…” or
less money than other when the group read the
families. purple card about the gay
● There was good rationale family.
from some students about ● I would definitely use
what type of housing they smaller groups in the future
would need. They weren’t and give more time if I
picking three bedrooms if could fit it in the schedule.
only one was necessary.
Student Work
Elizabeth’s Implementation Experience
● The planning aspect of this task wasn’t bad due to the
fact that I was using a task that had already been
created. Since I used this task for my Algebra 1B
students, however, I needed to revise it before
implementing it in order to ensure that all students
would be able to enter the task. My revision consisted of
increased scaffolding and a guided computation sheet.

● My students worked in groups of 3 and took two class

periods to finish this task. Their final paragraphs were
written individually rather than as groups.
Elizabeth’s Implementation Experience
Challenges
Cooperative Group Work:
● In some groups I could tell
that one or two of the
members were doing most of
the work.
Time:
● Originally I planned for it to
last 1 block but students
ended up needing more time.
Depth of Knowledge:
● Students tended to focus
more on the families than the
mathematics.
Successes
Discussions:
● Students had some great
discussions about inequities
in today’s society and many
students found that they
personally related to the
families in the task.
● Many students were upset
about the Yellow Family
where the woman was paid
only 64% of what the men
made at the same job.
Ideas for the Future
More revision:
● I think that I either added too
many scaffolds or the wrong
scaffolds because the task
didn’t get students to the
depth of knowledge that I
was hoping. I would like to re-
design this task a bit to
increase the amount of
mathematics students must
use and be in contact with.
● I think that it would be
interesting to have students
do their own research
regarding fair wages and
housing costs.
Student Work
Task 2: Social Justice Presentation
● Development of the task was not difficult as teaching for social justice and
statistics goes hand in hand. This was a revision to a project I completed last
year. This year I wanted to target social injustices and heritage connection for
my students. I wanted to the task to be meaningful to them. Students
performed much better than I expected examining social structures and things
that concerned them as young adults.

● Link to the task: Task for Statistics

Derek’s Implementation Experience
● Similar to any new project or strategy, it takes time to
improve and refine the project to target specific goals.
This is especially true when it calls for questioning the
status quo.

● This year’s group was much more eager to find data and
investigate things that interested them than the students
from my previous implementation.
Derek’s Implementation Experience
Challenges
Attendance/consistency:
● Most groups work really well
together. Some chose not to
work in groups at all. Others
had issues with members
showing up consistently.
Class Time used:
● Took 2 weeks of class time,
plus another 2 days of
presentations.
Teaching technology:
● Google Sheets was new to
many of the students.
Successes
Applicable:
● Students started to view
statistics in terms of real
world applications. I heard a
lot of them say, “I could see
myself doing this in my job or
in the future”.
Multiple Entry Points:
● Incorporating many
components allowed certain
students to shine more than
others. Artistic students
designed/created the poster.
The researchers dug deep for
data. The talkers were able to
present what the group
found.
Ideas for the Future
Topic selection:
● I would be sure to make them
think about a variety of
different social issues. For
instance, giving them
suggestions about
controversial issues like
black suspects being killed
by cops would be helpful.
Class environment:
● I also need to do a better job
at opening up the inquisitive
spirit of discussion and
challenging the status quo to
have them in the right mind
frame.
Student Work
● Population vs Life Expectancy
● Life Satisfaction in Europe
● Abortion Rates in the World
● Medical Marijuana in Colorado by county
● High School Dropouts Rates
Connections to Research that We
Experienced in our Classrooms
Continuous Revision:
● “We aim to illustrate that teaching is a continual journey; in that, ‘effective’
mathematics teachers do not master teaching, but rather find themselves in
a continuous state of growth and change” (as cited in Stinson et al., 2012, p.
81-82).

Rich Discussions:
● “Teachers and students need to create classrooms where they openly and
honestly discuss justice issues” (Gutstein, 2003, p. 63).

Constraints:
● “In actual teachers’ classrooms, the constraints of time and pressures of
testing often force teachers to prioritize one goal over the other” (Kokka,
2015, p. 16).
Suggestions from the Research
Getting students involved in the task development process:
● Freire argues for “a problem-posing pedagogy that requires learners
and teachers to dialectically co-generate tasks based on themes that
lead learners to raise their critical awareness of those themes in
relation to their disciplinary content learning” (as cited by Larnell et al.,
2016, p. 21).

Increased Differentiation:
● “Social justice must also be taught with authentic empathy in the
classroom. This means diversifying instructional methods to provide
multiple entry points for personal connections with the mathematical
content being presented. These entry points should be student-
centered” (Bond & Chernoff, 2015, p. 28).
Concluding Thoughts
Is creating complex social justice tasks difficult? It
can be. However, the payoff for the
underprivileged sub groups that are being left
behind in our current system as well as for the rest
of the people in the classroom can be monumental.
Opening doors, being catalysts for change, and
engaging students at a very high level should be
the norm of every classroom. Social Justice Tasks
are just one way that teachers can help build a
more inclusive society of learners and problem-
solvers.
“This recognition of disparities is coupled with the position that
teachers can and should be both educators and advocates who are
committed to the democratic ideal and to diminishing existing
inequities in school and society by helping to redistribute educational
opportunities” (Cochran‐Smith et al., 2009, p. 350).

What type of teacher are YOU?

Next Steps
If you are a teacher who would like to learn more about how you can make a
meaningful impact on all of your student by using social justice tasks, we suggest
the following:

1. Create a task or find one that is already out there to use for one of your classes.
2. Try it out! Remember that students may not be used to discussing these kinds of topics. Continue to
build a classroom culture that is open, understanding, and inquisitive.
3. Adapt your task for future use. Reflect and revise.
4. Develop a different task for a different class. Get your students involved in the planning.
5. Follow this until you feel comfortable creating and running these tasks in class.
6. Try one per Chapter or Unit.
Bibliography
Appelbaum, P., & Davila, E. (2007). Math education and social justice: Gatekeepers,
politics and teacher agency. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, 22,
1-23.
Cochran‐Smith, M., Shakman, K., Jong, C., Terrell, D., Barnatt, J., & McQuillan, P.
(2009). Good and Just Teaching: The Case for Social Justice in Teacher
Education. American Journal of Education, 115(3), 347-377. doi:10.1086/597493
Flores, A. (2007). Examining disparities in mathematics education: Achievement gap
or opportunity gap? The High School Journal, 91(1), 29–42.
Stinson, D. W., Bidwell, C. R., & Powell, G. C. (2012). Critical pedagogy and teaching
mathematics for social justice. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy,
4(1).
Villegas, A. M. (1988). School failure and cultural mismatch: Another review. Urban
Review, 20(4), 253–265.